Petition demanding birth certificate surges past 500,000

Question over Obama's eligibility to Oval Office appears to be growing

The unanswered questions over Barack Obama’s legitimacy as a president apparently are not going away. More than half a million people have signed a petition demanding proof he is eligible for the office.

The questions about his eligibility under the Constitution’s requirement that the president must be a “natural born citizen” first were raised in a series of legal cases before he was elected.

Now he’s been in office some 14 months – not quite one-third of his term as president – and more than 500,000 people have signed a petition demanding to see the proof.

The petition was addressed to the Electoral College, Congress, the Federal Elections Commission, U.S. Supreme Court and others “demanding that the constitutional eligibility requirement be taken seriously and that any and all controlling legal authorities in this matter examine the complete birth certificate of Barack Obama, including the actual city and hospital of birth, and make that document available to the American people for inspection.”

As of early today, the signers totaled 500,058 and the number was rising.

The petition has been joined by a new one that addresses the constitutional duties of state officials and others to verify that a candidate for office is eligible.

It is addressed to state secretaries of state, attorneys general, governors, legislatures, election officials and “all other controlling legal authorities of elections in the 50 states.”

It states:

Whereas, by requirement of the United States Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, no one can be sworn into office as president of the United States without being a natural born citizen;

Whereas, there is sufficient controversy within the citizenry of the United
States as to whether presidential election winner Barack Obama was actually
born in Hawaii as he claims;

Whereas, Barack Obama has claimed to be the son of a Kenyan national and a subject of the United Kingdom at birth;

Whereas, Barack Obama was apparently adopted by an Indonesian national stepfather as a child, potentially abrogating his “natural born citizen” status;

Whereas, Barack Obama has refused repeated requests for the release of documents, such as his school records, college records, travel records, passport records, Selective Service records and health records, that might shed light on his citizenship status;

Whereas, Barack Obama has even refused repeated calls to release publicly his entire Hawaiian birth certificate, which would include the actual hospital that performed the delivery;

Whereas, lawsuits filed in several states seeking only proof of the basic minimal standard of eligibility have been rebuffed;

Whereas, this constitutional cloud over the commander-in-chief creates an exceedingly heavy burden on the nation’s armed forces, some members of which, at great personal risk to themselves and their careers, are publicly calling for Barack Obama to prove his eligibility;

Whereas, Hawaii at the time of Obama’s birth allowed births that took place in foreign countries to be registered in Hawaii;

Whereas, growing concerns that our governments and election officials are not taking this constitutional question seriously will result in diminished confidence in our system of free and fair elections:

We, the undersigned, assert our rights as citizens of the United States in demanding that the Constitution’s eligibility requirement be taken seriously and that any and all controlling legal authorities in this matter examine the complete birth certificate of Barack Obama, including the actual city and hospital of birth, and make that document available to the American people for inspection, and further conduct a thorough investigation of the unusual background of Barack Obama to establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, that he is constitutionally eligible to serve as president.

Joseph Farah, editor and chief executive officer of WND, announced the new petition in a column.

“I think it’s more than clear at this point that no one at the federal level plans to do anything to enforce the U.S. Constitution,” Farah writes. “But I have confidence that at least some state officials will have the guts to do so when Obama faces re-election – if he dares.”

Farah pointed out that it won’t take all 50 states enforcing the law to ensure Obama is disqualified.

“Obama knows he can’t win without competing in all 50 states,” he said. “In fact, he will have his hands full even if he can get on the ballot everywhere.”

For 18 months, Farah has been one of the few national figures who has steadfastly pushed the issue of eligibility, despite ridicule, name-calling and ostracism from colleagues. To date, in addition to the earlier petition, he has:

“Obama may be able to continue showing contempt for the Constitution and the rule of law for the next two years, as he has demonstrated his willingness to do in his first year in office,” he says in his column. “However, a day of reckoning is coming. Even if only one significant state, with a sizable Electoral College count, decides a candidate for election or re-election has failed to prove his or her eligibility, that makes it nearly impossible for the candidate to win. It doesn’t take all 50 states complying with the law to be effective.”

If you are a member of the media and would like to interview Joseph Farah about this campaign, e-mail WND.